I can't relate to those modern Western clinical and popular approaches to mindfulness... I don't find them so harmless, and I'm almost horrified about the possibility of having to deal with them again... (I'm having a kind of weight of nobility crisis in regard to the popular mindfulness folks and ...

How does one "observe what is happening without judging it"? What are these promoters of this kind of mindfulness talking about?? I have read some of their work, but I have no idea what they are talking about. In these clinical contexts, mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on pu...

Very interesting .pdf article by Analayo : "Levitation in Early Buddhist Discourse" A comparative study of reports that the Buddha and his disciples journeyed to celestial realms or traversed considerable distances on earth through the power of levitation gives the impression that at an early stage ...

Some references; I look forward to finding out how this is deficient in spite of the fact that 'preliminary' is a word "denoting an action or event preceding or done in preparation for something fuller or more important" - oh well, too many sacred cows scattered about to bother worrying about steppi...

Oh yeah, sorta forgot the Greeks. Maybe I'll mention the Persian Royal Road he used, which might complement the Silk Road & Milindapanha notes further down... maybe even ending up with Faxian & Xuanzang... but that's maybe too much to cover... I haven't read it yet, but this may be the source to use...

What is "tainted right view"? Howcome right view be tainted? I miss this point. This is mentioned in MN 117 . I dunno, might work for some people as long as it doesn't undermine sila. Exactly, those are the 'some' I'm writing for. Maybe two more people over the next year or so? But in any event, it...

Would you have other references on facts that early Buddhism (the Buddhism as taught by the Buddha,) had anything to do with spirit cults? Schopen has written a number of papers on this topic, collected in two volumes: Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraph...

Is there any evidence of this... This comes via DeCaroli, Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism & certain references therein. it is simply that taking the 5 seconds more to also write down the references would make it 5 times better To just list books here... w...

I don't think the supra/mundane distinction needs to hold that much water; it's something of a false dichotomy, as the development of wholesome factors in an individual case admits of degrees, almost like it's a gradual thing... (even the attainment of stream-entry & the removal of eternalisms, anni...

An approach to the Dhamma for skeptics & this-life-only folk, in general; people who simply can't be bothered to accept ancient cosmologies, psychic powers, flying monks, and who dismiss the Four Truths as a result.

To them, Buddhist teachings are for the purpose of making one's worldly life better. Obviously that misapprehends the Dhamma; these people are better off just calling their activity 'eclectic meditation', since there is no reference to the Four Truths in such a case. And not every modern annihilati...

Without refernces it is difficult to verify or confirm the dates/events. References are wafting loose throughout academia & the internet, which isn't so very difficult to peruse; this is more of a summary than an argument. :shrug: A lot of the work comes from Schopen, Analayo, Sujato, Dutt, Bronkho...